Dr. David W. Vikner retired as President of the Japan ICU Foundation this past August after 13 years of service. David’s career in global education spanned five decades and two continents, North America and Asia. He taught and worked in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and in New York City, where he spent the latter half of his career serving as the President of two significant organizations, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia and the Japan ICU Foundation. He has left a positive impact on the lives of thousands of students and colleagues in all corners of the globe, and hopes to continue doing so through the establishment of the new David W. Vikner Social Service Fund.

Japan ICU Foundation: To begin, can you please tell us a bit about your family’s background in Asia?

Dr. Vikner: My parents were both born in Henan Province in China to missionary parents in 1916 and remained in China until they graduated from high school in 1934.  After completing their undergraduate and graduate studies in the United States in 1946, they themselves returned to China as missionaries, along with my sister and me.  Then, after the communist takeover of China in 1949, our family went on to serve the church in Japan for nine years before settling in the suburbs of New York City, where my father worked as an executive the Lutheran Church in America until 1982.

JICUF: Did you always know you wanted to continue building on the legacy of your parents and grandparents, in regard to their work in Asia?

DV: During my twelve years in Asia as a young boy I had the privilege of getting deeply immersed in both Chinese and Japanese culture.  However, I never thought very much about my future or what career I might want to pursue.  Frankly, it was only after I taught in Hong Kong for three years, right out of college, that my commitments to Asia, to higher education, and to Christianity started to come together.  It was at that point that I realized how much my formative years in China and Japan had influenced me and how privileged I had been to be nurtured in a missionary family. Since then, I have been involved in a fifty year commitment to Christian higher education in Asia.

JICUF: How has service to others influenced your career choices?

DV: Reaching out to those in need has consistently been one of the most obvious defining characteristics of both my family and my Christian faith.  That influence has clearly factored into a career that has largely focused on being of service to others within the context of East Asia and higher education.

JICUF: Within higher education, why is service learning important?

DV: One of the most important components of higher education is preparing students for responsible and informed citizenship in our rapidly changing world.  A dynamic combination of both service and learning can clearly help to set the stage for a lifetime of commitment to making the world a better place.

JICUF: As President of the Japan ICU Foundation, what did you do to help ICU establish and strengthen their service-learning program?

DV: A defining characteristic of the relationship between ICU and JICUF, which has now flourished for almost seventy years, has been a focus on the international, the religious and the academic dimensions of an ICU education.  Among the concerns that have been emphasized by JICUF within this framework are an abiding emphasis on peace and reconciliation, the environment, the dignity of women and inter-faith cooperation.  In every case, service to others, both in Japan and around the world, has been a central focus.  Not only has support from the Japan ICU Foundation for courses in service-learning come to be important, but support for all aspects of education within the context of service for people around the world has also been essential.

JICUF: What is the most impactful service-learning program you have participated in?

DV: Since there are so many service-learning projects that have had a deep impact on me, it is difficult for me to select only one.  However, the one that comes to mind almost immediately took place in Hong Kong in the late 1970s when waves of Vietnamese refugees were fleeing a recently unified and politically unstable Vietnam.

I was asked by United Nations representatives in Hong Kong to help with English/Mandarin translation since so many of the of the refugees from Vietnam were of Chinese background, and there were very few Vietnamese speakers in Hong Kong.  Those experiences turned out to have such an impact on me that I decided to work with our high school English Language Club to set up informal English language instruction for interested refugees, to invite high school age Vietnamese students to our school for a variety of activities and to build bridges of understanding between Vietnam and Hong Kong in the school.  It didn’t take long before the Hong Kong students were effectively reaching out to those in need and also finding themselves being nurtured by their guests from Vietnam.

JICUF: In your view, how can the David W. Vikner Social Service Fund most productively impact ICU students?

DV: Hopefully, it will encourage and inspire ICU students to experience the importance of service both for others and for themselves and also set the stage for a lifetime of responsibly reaching out to others in need.

NOTE: If you are interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to the David W. Vikner Social Service Fund, please contact the Japan ICU Foundation at: information@jicuf.org